Recent Posts

“Brat, brat, brat,” was all Clyde heard at first. Then, it was something about being unable to learn. Ugh, why wouldn't that teen stop calling him a brat? Brats weren't children; they were misbehaved children. He might have looked like a child, but, as far as he was concerned, he thought and acted like any other normal teenager. A lot of people considered children who asked questions bothersome, but he never was out to pester people. Of course, that guy probably didn't know, but even if he did, it likely wouldn't make a difference. Either way, he'd still get pushed around. Why people refused to accept that he was mentally competent was beyond him.

The teenaged kid locked eyes with his fellow student and glared. “Brat and child ah not the same thing, so quit calling me that,” he demanded. “I have a name, you know. Besides, I believe you ah the brat heah.”

Clyde felt that it was something he should say. It wasn't like he expected to get through to him, as jerks like him were impossible to reason with, but applying the “brat” label to him seemed fair enough.

Clyde hadn't expected Elke to not laugh like she did, but what surprised him further was that she seemed to be trying to make him feel better about his situation. Perhaps, despite the wild child Elke was, there was some civil decency in her after all.

“Upside? Maybe...” the age shifter responded plainly. As well meaning as those words might have been, they were nothing he hadn't heard before. Those who pitied his condition tended to say things like that all the time, but he'd been looking seven for several years now, and there still was no upside he could see.

What she said about those movies was true; staying a kid was not fun. Lying about his actual age in order to get things at a cheaper price might have been a “perk,” but it was a dishonest one. Besides, normalcy sounded a lot more appealing. Surely, getting to save a few bucks every once in a while wasn't worth getting ridiculed all the time.

Elke was quick to act; she sent her clone to trick the large guy. It seemed a clever idea, though Clyde still wasn't sure if the guy was wanting to get revenge on him as well. It wasn't as if he really had a plan of his own – his mutation couldn't help him.

“Well, I suppose that makes...” he paused for a moment. Elke's clones were blabby. One of them was around when he told Elke about his mutation. If the clone decided to be blabby while in a crowded parts of campus, that meant... “Oh crap! Yah dupe!” he suddenly gasped, pointing in the direction the clone ran in. “What if she goes in theah and tells the whole school I'm a mutant? We need to get her out of theah!”

Ready to give chase, Clyde hoped that Elke was willing to help stop her duplicate. He might have been overreacting, but he was terrified of the possibility of his fellow students knowing. Them finding out he was older than he looked was bad enough, but them finding out it was because a mutant would get him eaten alive.

Clyde glared at the guy. He wasn't swallowing what he told him, was he? Ugh, and from what he said, he was going to have to put up with his unwanted attention the rest of lunch break. “Haven't you noticed you're botharing me?” he groaned to himself, annoyed. Couldn't he take a hint? Somehow, though, he assumed that this other guy didn't care how intrusive he was being. Clyde was seriously considering grabbing his things and walking away but froze when the guy said something else.

“Say what?!” the age shifter exclaimed, a shocked expression flashing across his face. The other teen's words were strange, but the subject matter was getting too close to what was really going on for it to be coincidental. He seemed suspicious, and it was making him beyond uncomfortable. Clyde had no idea as to how much that guy knew about him, but he had to try to throw the guy off somehow, else he'd find out that he was a mutant soon (if he hadn't already). “What, you mean like aging prematurely? Whatever,” he changed to a bored tone. Maybe if he showed enough disinterest, the guy would soon grow bored. He wasn't going to hold his breath, though.

At first, it seemed that Elke was going to be the one to answer his question, but the duplicate suddenly blabbed about a Susan who was trying to get her into a home. The social workers were indeed trying to put her into a foster home. Clearly, Elke was upset about the information leak, and, for a moment, Clyde thought she was going to cry, though she quickly reverted to her original boastful attitude.

He'd pushed too far. She was still a kid, and it really was none of his business in the first place. It was so sad to hear about. He didn't know exactly why, but somehow, she was in a situation where the social workers were trying to put her into a foster home. He had heard nightmares about that system, so he couldn't blame her for not wanting to go to one, even if they really were trying to help.

“Oh. I'm really sorry,” he apologized, looking down and using his foot to move around some dirt.

Clyde felt so bad about it; his suspicious nature had got the better of him. He was suddenly feeling the need to set things right. But how? Hmm... there was one thing he could think of. He was a bit hesitant about it at first. However, she didn't go to his school, and he probably wouldn't see her again. “If it makes you feel any bettah, I could tell you something I usually don't like people knowing.”

Yeah, she probably was going to die laughing if he told her, but she did observe some things earlier and it seemed like the fair thing to do.

Clyde heard Elke insist that her sister was not real. Then, his eyes widened as she fell from the tree. There wasn't much he could do to keep her from hitting the ground. He knew it; sitting up there wasn't safe. At least the branch Elke was sitting on wasn't too high... wait, Elke was on the ground AND in the tree! There were two of her! Clyde couldn't help but show just a bit of shock for what he could see. So that's what she meant when she said her “sister” wasn't real. She could duplicate herself. That was a mutant power, wasn't it?

“That explains a lot. Didn't expect to see another mutant,” he commented, trying to not act too surprised. In reality, he had to remind himself that he was now in New York City, and there were a lot more mutants there than in a lot of other places. Despite being one himself and having met a couple of others, he still was not used to being around other mutants. Mostly, it was because mutations varied so much that he didn't know what to look for.

For a second, Clyde looked back and forth between both Elkes, trying to determine which one was real. He finally decided it was the one in the tree because she continued talking. Elke mentioned something about them melting after a day. That sounded like a messy way to go.

As she continued, it became even more evident that Elke hated school. She seemed a little young to be deciding that, but honestly, he was hiding that fact that he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of school, either. It wasn't the learning part that bothered him - that, he could handle. It was more of the environment that bothered him. Being smaller than his peers made life at his old school a living hell.

Elke's story about not being allow at school sounded a lot like bragging, though it shouldn't be something to be proud of. It sounded maybe a bit fabricated, but it wasn't impossible.

“Cawted off?” he echoed to himself. He wasn't sure what she meant by that. She couldn't have been referring to social workers, could she? Or expulsion? “What do you mean by that? Do the schools try to keep you out because you ah a mutant?” he asked for clarification. Hey, it was a possibility. Some people were anti-mutant enough to try to keep mutants away from any place, whether it be refusing to hire them for a firm or trying to find a way to get them expelled from school.

I like this idea. I could definitely picture some public officials doing this, and leaving the public to interpret whether those said officials are indeed mutant-friendly saints or just sneaky politicians taking advantage of the situation to bolster their image. It could lead to some debate between the different characters. I'd be readily willing to have Clyde react to something like this.